The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

"If this lasts two months, you're talking about enough people to fill a completely new large prison," said William DiMascio, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, a 221-year-old inmate advocacy group.

Rendell named John S. Goldkamp, head of Temple University's criminal justice department, to do a top-to-bottom review of how the Board of Probation and Parole decides who gets paroled. Goldkamp's review will presumably be expedited, though Rendell set no deadline.

"We're awaiting [Goldkamp's] recommendation," Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said. "Clearly, the danger posed by an error for a citizen outweighs the impact on the system."

Still, Ardo said, Rendell will keep open the option of restoring parole for inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes if prison conditions warrant.

Meanwhile, the parole freeze is being felt throughout Pennsylvania.

"A lot of people involved in the system are beside themselves," DiMascio said. "They think the freeze was unnecessary, or could have been done without freezing all paroles."

Betty Jean Thompson, state leader of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, said several families had called her about relatives whose release was stopped.

Thompson, a Philadelphia teacher who got involved with CURE 12 years ago when her son was in prison, said the freeze meant those about to be paroled could lose promised jobs, places to live, and the chance for new lives.

"Many of these people are men and women who deserve a second chance," Thompson said.

The action affects more than inmates; correctional officers have long complained about being outnumbered by often-volatile prison populations, a situation that is likely to become more uneasy as the moratorium increases inmate populations - and potentially explosive stress.

Roy Pinto, vice president of the 10,500-member Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, said that there were 500 vacant officer jobs and that 200 more officers were on active duty with the National Guard or reserves.

Pinto said he was also worried that the parole moratorium comes at the same time the U.S. economy is flagging, traditionally a time when more people wind up in prison.

"We're trying to cut a few people loose early, but they're pouring in the other end," said Pinto, an officer for 17 years at Rockview in Central Pennsylvania.

Correctional officers have reason to worry.

Overcrowding was considered a major cause of the Oct. 25, 1989, riot at Camp Hill prison near Harrisburg. The four-day rampage injured 138 prison officers and 70 inmates and destroyed half the prison.

Pinto said demand for cell space has been so high that the old state prison in Pittsburgh, closed in January 2005, was reopened last year.

"It's even worse for parole agents," Pinto added. "Their workload has increased so much they can't really do their job."

Sherry Tate, a spokeswoman for the Board of Probation and Parole, said agency officials would not comment until after the parole review.

County prisons will also feel the impact of the freeze.

Bob Eskind, spokesman for the Philadelphia prison system, said the city system typically released 630 people a week who made bail, completed a county sentence, or were released on probation or parole. Some are state inmates who, for various reasons, are housed in county facilities.

An additional 89 local inmates a week are sent to serve state prison sentences.

In a seriously overcrowded system - Philadelphia's prisons now hold about 145 percent of their rated 6,433-bed capacity - Eskind said officials depend on "one in and one out."

As the moratorium continues, some prisoner advocates are considering a lawsuit.

Angus Love, a veteran prisoner advocate and executive director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, said, "There is nothing in the statute [creating parole] that says the governor has a unilateral right to end parole."

Love said many people assumed that Rendell's order was just for inmates convicted of violent crimes; they were stunned to learn the moratorium affected all potential parolees.

Rendell issued the moratorium just days after he signed a package of bills that allow early release of nonviolent offenders who agree to complete education and job-training programs and who show good behavior in prison.

CURE's Thompson said she found the wholesale halt to parole illogical: "If a surgeon kills his patient, we don't stop all surgeries."
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/30881134.html

==========================
Posted on Wed, Oct. 1, 2008
Temple professor ponders role in Phila. parole review
By Mario F. Cattabiani and Andrew Maykuth
Inquirer Staff Writers
The Temple University professor who hastily accepted Gov. Rendell's request Monday to conduct a "top-to-bottom" review of Pennsylvania's parole system knows very little about the new assignment or how long it will take to complete.

John S. Goldkamp, head of Temple's criminal-justice department, said yesterday that he planned to focus on how other states release violent offenders into society and whether those practices can be used here.

Rendell asked Goldkamp to take on the task in the wake of the second slaying in four months of a city police officer by a paroled felon.

Goldkamp said yesterday that he did not yet know what his budget is, whether he can hire consultants, or his deadline. He did not even know until he read about it in yesterday's newspapers that Rendell had put a hold on all early prison releases until Goldkamp gets his job done. Each month, about 1,000 prisoners typically are released on parole from Pennsylvania's prisons.

"That makes for a lot of pressure," Goldkamp said. "I have the pressure of knowing that to some extent, our work is holding up the release of some people who are fully prepared to be released."

As part of the review, Goldkamp said he would examine the cases of the parolees who gunned down Sgt. Patrick McDonald last week and Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski in May. But he stressed yesterday that he was "not interested in finding blame, although that seems to be the environment right now."

Instead, he added, he plans to "look at the process of the system, and its strengths and weaknesses and what might be done to make it better."

Rendell contacted Goldkamp on Monday afternoon, hours after the Fraternal Order of Police and Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey called on the state to declare a moratorium on paroles pending a systematic review.

Speaking outside McDonald's funeral yesterday, John J. McNesby, president of FOP Lodge 5, expressed gratitude for Rendell's quick action.

"It seems like there's some light at the end of the tunnel, when the governor agreed to do that yesterday," said McNesby. "He's doing the right thing, and that means a lot for the cops on the street."

Goldkamp, a nationally recognized expert on corrections and parole issues, said he expected to meet with Rendell administration officials soon to set the scope of the review and other logistics, including a time frame.

The last time he was hired to do a systemwide review was in 2005, when he examined crowding in Philadelphia's prisons.

That review took a year to complete, he said, adding, "This won't take a year."
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/29989909.html